Japan Open: Impressive Day for Malaysia
Nur Mohd Azriyn Ayub Azriyn and Tan Wee Kiong achieved their biggest result in recent times with the stunning upset of fourth seeds Kim Astrup/Anders Skaarup Rasmussen in the second round of the DAIHATSU Japan Open 2025.
· DEV SUKUMAR
The world No.26 Malaysian pair have endured a difficult year, with a streak of seven first round exits, and winning only three of 11 matches this season. One of those was against Leo Rolly Carnando/Bagas Maulana at the Indonesia Masters in January – that result apart, the Malaysians have had little to cheer about until they arrived in Tokyo.
After a close first round win over Popov brothers Toma Junior and Christo, Azriyn and Tan stayed the course against Astrup and Rasmussen, edging the Danes 21-19 in the third to make the last-eight in the second quarter. Incidentally, their previous best result was also in Japan, at the Kumamoto Masters last November when they made the semifinals.
“We are satisfied and happy with today’s performance,” said Tan, one of the veterans of the circuit at 36. “We are always looking for a breakthrough, so today was a boost. For youngsters it’s not a problem to recover, but for me it might take some time. We never thought about this result. We just focussed on our performance and not the result. We’re happy that in the last two matches we were able to create something in our career.”